1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to decorative water fountains which incorporate the use of such things as lighting and sound features, and in particular relates to systems, methods and apparatuses for infinitely varying the water output of the fountain and the lighting effect in correspondence with audio or other signals in real time.
2. Background Art
For centuries, fountains have been used to bring life to landscape and architecture. In more recent times, lighting and sound features have been added to enhance the artistic appeal of fountains. Attempts at coordinating the water, light and sound outputs so as to create a cohesive and unified audio/visual effect have either met with failure or have proven to be so labor intensive and costly as to be unfeasible to all but the most pecunious fountain owners. The inventor is unaware of any systematic fountain apparatus which can vary the water and light output of a fountain in a coordinated manner as a function of sound (e.g. music) input signals in real time regardless of the nature, frequency, beat, etc. of the sound input signals. All previous attempts at real time control of water and light output in response to audio signal input have required the creation of software routines customized to the particular piece of music.
One attempt at providing a controlled fountain in which the water and light outputs are varied in accordance with musical sounds is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,439,170 to Dach. Dach includes valves which are positioned downstream from water pumps, which valves are opened and closed to retard or permit water to flow to output jets. Attempting to control valves in this way will inevitably lead to undesired inertia losses and undue overall complexity in such a system, which will make it virtually impossible to obtain a truly synchronized output of water, light and sound.
Another attempt at providing a fountain in which water output and light emission is varied in accordance with input signals related to audio sounds is U.S. Pat. No. 5,152,210 to Chen. The Chen system operates in three discrete settings: a built-in procedure setting in which a main circuit provides predetermined signal sets to control the water and light performance sub-systems in a predetermined manner; an external sound input mode in which the main unit receives an analog signal which is analyzed and applied to a corresponding set of statistical music theory rules; and an external specific signal mode about which no detail is given. As in the patent to Dach, independent valves downstream of the water pumps are used to control water flow through the array of jets making up the fountain. Further, the valves which control water flow utilize photo interrupters to control valve position and hence water outlet selection.
A still further attempt at providing a fountain having variable operating states is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,069,387 to Alba. The Alba patent discloses a fountain controlled by a microprocessor, the output of the fountain being variable through the microprocessor in accordance with such parameters as input music signals. However, like the aforementioned references, the water flow is regulated by valves positioned downstream of the flow pumps and, consequently, suffer from the disadvantages already mentioned. In addition, the Alba fountain, although being extremely precise, is extremely complicated in that each water outlet constituting a jet making up the array of possible outlets are individually controlled by a valve residing within and constituting a part of the jet itself. The larger the fountain, the larger the complications incident to varying the pattern(s). In addition, installation of complicated electro-mechanical valves at each jet would essentially prohibit such a fountain from being used as a floating fountain due to size and weight limitations.